World News - White House to brief House, Senate panels on NSA wiretaps

Details of a classified government wiretap program will be given to full congressional committees for the first time on Wednesday, senior politicians said.The intelligence committees of both the House and Senate will be briefed on the National Security Agency's eavesdropping program, the chairmen of the panels said.Previously only a handful of senior senators and congressmen were told about the domestic spying operation authorized by the president, which is run outside the court system.The wiretapping will be a "central" topic of discussions of whether to approve Gen. Michael Hayden as the next CIA chief, Sen Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, said in a prepared statement. Hayden's hearing is to begin Thursday.... http://www.cnn.com

A new security force consisting of around 3,000 Islamic militants was deployed by the Hamas-led Palestinian government across the Gaza Strip today. The creation of the force is Hamas's most fierce challenge yet to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. Mr Abbas, of the Fatah party, had officially vetoed the creation of the force. But Hamas said it was needed to bring order to the chaotic Gaza Strip and to confront marauding gangs of armed men who have been terrorising citizens."The formation of this unit is illegal," said Maher Mekdad, a Fatah spokesman in Gaza. "It violates the presidential decree, and it's a unit outside the law." ...http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1776909,00.html?gusrc=rss

Indian independence fighter Subhash Chandra Bose did not die in a Taiwanese plane crash, an inquiry has found. The report into one of the great mysteries of India's freedom struggle concluded that Mr Bose had died but not in the 1945 crash as widely thought. Mr Bose, whose body was never found, and his army fought against British rule from Japan and Burma. The commission did not say what happened to him and the Congress-led government has rejected its findings. The BBC's Jyotsna Singh in Delhi says the fact that Mr Bose's body was never recovered has fuelled speculation among some of his supporters that he survived the crash. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4989868.stm

The chief judge in the Saddam Hussein trial has said he will consider a request for the former Iraqi president and his half-brother to offer testimony on behalf of a co-defendant.Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman, expressing reluctance at such a move, said Wednesday he would make a decision by the time the court session reconvenes next week. He did not clarify whether that meant standing as witnesses or written statements to be submitted to the court.The court session was adjourned and reconvenes on Monday.This comes after two days of defense witness testimony on behalf of some of the minor Baath Party co-defendants -- Mohammed Ali and Abdullah and Mizher Ruwaid -- a father and son....http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/05/17/saddam.trial/index.html?section=cnn_world

Mount Merapi has shot out a cloud of hot ash and gas, ending two days of relative calm and reviving fears of hundreds of people living on its slopes.Witnesses said Wednesday the eruption seemed smaller than the mountain's most violent sputterings on Monday, when ash and gas clouds surged four kilometers (2.5 miles) from the peak and sparked panic.Vulcanologists have yet to comment on the eruption just after 5:00 p.m. (1000 GMT), which saw volcanic material plunge down its western slopes, but fell short of populated areas.Experts have warned a huge, potentially deadly eruption could occur at any time. Authorities have put the island of Java on red alert and imposed a mandatory evacuation order around the mountain....http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/05/17/indonesia.volcano/index.html?section=cnn_world

The first of 6,000 National Guard troops President Bush wants to station on the southwest border will be deployed next month, assigned to fly helicopters to spot illegal aliens, lay sensors to detect their movement, and build roads and barriers to help the U.S. Border Patrol do its job. "We're trained, we're ready to do this, and we're able to do this," said Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau. But Mr. Bush's border mobilization plan is being questioned by besieged state and local law-enforcement authorities battling rapidly escalating violence by heavily armed alien and drug smugglers. Zapata County, Texas, Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr., who helped create and served as the first president of the Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition, challenged Mr. Bush's plan to use unarmed National Guard troops to monitor cameras, build roads and repair fences ...http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060517-125631-8258r.htm